Neapolitan Pizza

First of all, I want to say I’m sorry for not being in touch with you for such a long while (sometimes life is complicated…), and I want to say I hope you all had fun during Christmas time. May this new year be positive for you all! 🙂
Well, let’s talk about the recipe!
Time ago I wanted to experience in person the recipe of dough “Neapolitan pizza”, fortunately I have to say! 😉 I made so many pizzas before but, never like this one as the dough is absolutely different (dosing of ingredients, long rising, etc.) in other words, it’s delicious!

Method:
First you pour half a litre of wather in a large and deep bowl, and dissolve 25 g of salt, stirring with a fork or a whisk. When the salt is dissolved you must add 10% of total flour (as I used 900 g in total – 90 g of flour “0” and 810 g of flour “00” – in my case the 10% was composed of 90 g of flour “0” oh well, English is not my own language and explaining a method can be difficult to me sometimes, but I hope you understand me anyway! ;-)). Stir carefully and then add two and a half grams of yeast (basically a slice of the entire piece!!!) previously dissolved in one or at most two tablespoons of lukewarm water (no sugar, please!!!).
Continue to stir and as you add the rest of the flour a little at a time, keep on stirring carefully. It takes at least 10 minutes to add all the ingredients.
After ten minutes pour the mixture over the pastry board and you start to knead at lenght, for at least 20 minutes. The dough is ready when it becomes smooth and absolutely not sticky. If pressed with a finger the latter must sink clean and without breaking the dough. Here is a picture of the dought just ready to leaven for the first time:
Store the dough in a bowl and cover it with film, leaving it up to 2 hours in a warm place, repaired by draught. You can also leave it on a pastry board or on a marble table if you have got one, and cover the dough with a damp cloth (I prefer it aside, far from being “attacked” by my cats… 😉 ). So the bowl covered with film is fine for me, then I insert it inside the oven off and I leave it there for two hours.
After two hours of the first rising, let’s cut the dough in pieces that must weigh between 180 and 250 g. The pieces are cut with the help of a spatula, but strictly shaped by hand, creating kind of balls, therefore put the balls again to leaven for 4 or 6 hours… If you decide to get pieces that weigh 180 g each, with the amount I have indicated you will get 8 balls, and pizzas will have a diameter of a dish. If you decide to get balls that weigh 250 g each instead, you will yield 4 balls of course larger for as many pizzas with a diameter of a pizza plate.
Here are more pictures:
the dough after rising for two hours, which doesn’t seem to be risen at all, but it will during the second rise after obtaining the balls!
The balls 180 g each piece… Just cut, yet to rise.
Put the balls to rise well spaced (better if individually in containers with lid, or otherwise covered by film) for a period ranging from 4 to 6 hours. After the time of this second leavening (depends on your patience!) you can proceed to shape the pizzas, without rolling pin or whatever, I recommend! Otherwise it’s no longer a “Neapolitan pizza”!!! The thick “edge” of this kind of pizza would be missing, we get it only if pizzas are pulled by hand!
So, arm yourselves with will and elbow-grease together and begin to pull on a floured pastry board one pizza at a time, with a movement of the hands that goes from the center outwards, moving the air toward the edge (which remains more swollen that the rest of pizza), until the center’s tickness reaches about 1 cm.
Once each pizza is moulded you can therefore proceed to the desired toppings, which in my case consisted of tomato pulp, stewed onions (1 white and 1 red), Concita’s vegan mozzarella (this time it wasn’t melted but it tasted very good!), the Sicilian wild oregano, and – only once baked and out of the oven – extra virgin olive-oil!
The over must be well warmed up to the maximum temperature, then both temperature and cooking time depend on the kind of oven you use and on your experience, of course!
More photos:
the whole pizza…
Bit pizza!
The B-side… 😉
Once you learn this method, it will be difficult to get back!!! Come and see for yourself!!! 😉
Happy Neapolitan pizza to you all!!! 😉